Darrow does it again
by JakeCrown
Summary: A Darrow wakes up earlier in time cliché. Post-Morning Star back to Institute times. Fast paced action/thriller with a dose of comedic horror. Pretty much... a mad gory romp through a glorious field of broken golden bodies.
1. Chapter 1

This is a 'Red Rising' trilogy fanfiction. The world in my story belongs to Pierce Brown. Please don't sue me. I make no money from this. I am writing this because there are no good Red Rising fanfictions that I can find and this series deserves at least a token good fic.

Warnings: Blood, Gore, Murder, etc. Might dip into lemons later in the story.

Summary: A Darrow wakes up earlier in time cliché. Post-Morning Star back to Institute times. Fast paced action/thriller with a dose of comedic horror. Pretty much... a mad gory romp through a glorious field of broken golden bodies.

888

Darrow does it again: Chapter One: Is this really happening?

888

I woke just before the fist sunk into my full stomach. I vomited as I opened my eyes. Two obsidians stood above me, dressed in black uniforms and wearing black balaclava masks. I spewed all over the obsidian above me.

This was not a pleasant thing to wake to. One of the twelve fingered giants held a set of manacle cuffs. The other drew back his fist for another punch.

I was a veteran of the Society's War. I was the Reaper. I had just learned that I was a father the day before. I would not die here! Not before I got to know my child!

My fist rocketed into the obsidian's groin and throat before his mind processed my arm moving. I choked on vomit as the other obsidian dropped his manacles as his partner flopped to the floor, gasping for air. He would die soon of asphyxiation.

I kicked out at the other obsidian's chest, but he backed away. I coughed up vomit from my lungs as I felt the agony radiate from my stomach. I blinked sleep from my eyes as I rose from the bed. The obsidian pulled a baton from his waist.

Blue arcs of electricity flickered around the tip of the rod. I crouched to duck a sudden thrust form the rod. I kicked out at the lowColor's left leg. He jumps back, across the room. Jumping across rooms was easy in low gravity.

I grabbed the choking obsidian and lifted him up by the arm. I threw his flailing body as hard as I could at the other obsidian. He collided and knocked his accomplice backwards. His arms flailed before his neck made a nasty popping noise as his head collided with a closed door's frame.

I panted and dry-heaved as I looked around my room. It wasn't my villa on Earth. It wasn't my palace on Mars. It wasn't my private shuttle or my cabin aboard the Morning Star.

I'd been kidnapped... By who?

I took the masks off the obsidians to see if I recognized their faces. The one I'd thrown still lived, choking on his own blood. As I took the balaclavas off, I noticed something strange about my hands. They were scar-less, smooth and soft. Gold markings shined on the back of my hands.

I'd been carved... again? Made gold again... why would enemies carve me in such a way?

I quickly went through the pockets of the two obsidians. They certainly were under-equipped to fight The Reaper. Two stunsticks and two earpieces. I put one into my ear, trying to figure out what was going on.

Instead of hearing people in the ear-piece, I hear the hiss of a ghost-cloak disengaging. I dropped the ear-piece. I might as well be unarmed with just stunsticks. I stood no chance against a gold with a ghost-cloak without a weapon.

"Good show Andromedus." A low voice spoke up from behind me. A popping noise. I stopped cold. Was that... The voice was so familiar.

Andromedus?! Who called me that anymore. I was known by everyone as Darrow of Lykos. The Reaper of Mars.

I slowly turned my head and looked behind me and blinked.

Was I dreaming?

The pain in my stomach and stinging in my nostrils pointed to otherwise.

Was this the vale?

Fitchner au Barca raised his stunfist covered hand and fires into my back.

I see blue light and then darkness.

888

I woke as I fly briefly in the air and felt the cold stone floor rise to give me a big kiss in the face. I lied there groaning for a few moments. I heard a metal door slam shut behind me.

"Darrow!" A boy's voice sounded near me. I felt hands start to help me sit up. I ached everywhere. I opened my eyes.

I wanted to scream. Julian au Bellona knelt next to me. A boy I'd killed in the passing, years ago when I was 16.

I'd killed him brutally. Was I dead too.? I was scar-less and smooth. Was this a test by the great reaper of souls? Could this be a test of my conviction?

"Are you alright?" Julian asked, worried for me.

What do I say? What do I say to the boy I'd killed? Do I apologize? Do I even feel sorry for ending his life? His death led to the ousting of the Society's sovereign. His death led to the breaking of chains.

"I'm prime," I grunt. I brought my hand up to my nose and winced. My hand came away with blood. My whole body ached. I'd been beaten harder than this before. Had limbs cut off. This was one of the lowest points of my life in my past. Killing a little sweet boy.

I said nothing as I rose and looked around the room. I knew this room. It was part of a museum. A horror HV of crimes against humanity.

The pain felt real. I could not understand the insanity of what was around me.

The door opened with a squeal. Fitchner stood in the doorway, popping his bubblegum. I felt elation to see him alive again.

"How dare You treat us like this!" Julian yelled. "Look at Darrow!" He pointed at me. "You said the passing wasn't until tomorrow, you lied!" Julian continued to scream.

Julian's face was red as he glared at Fitchner. "Don't you know who my father is, my mother is a legate too!" He pointed at me. "I'll have you brought up on charges for this!"

Fitchner just smirked.

"You are both here to join House Mars." Fitchner reached into his pocket and tossed a gold ring with a wolf's head onto the dirty stone floor. "Alas, there is only one opening available"

As the door shut with a slam, my mind was stunned. This must be a test. To test my conviction in the afterlife. I must be dead. I wasn't done.

I wasn't done yet? What was this?

"Darrow, they don't... they don't really mean for us to kill each-other do they?"

Oh yes, they did, I wanted to say. I chocked on a sob instead.

"Darrow, You have to give up. You don't understand. I have to pass. My whole family have been..." I heard only my own thoughts.

Would I kill this boy to secure the the future to come? Was this my test? Was the future worth this boy's life?

I felt hands grab my shirt. Tears rolled out of my eyes as I realized I had died. Would I... Could I ever change what happened in this room.

My hand moved on it's own. After years of war and sparring, the motion was well practiced. My hand , like a knife, lashed out into Julian au Bellona's throat.

I could not contain a sob.

I did this for the future.

For the freedom of a better future.

I killed a little boy.

The door was unlocked, I found, after I composed myself. I made my way through the hallway of doors as if in a dream. The sense of familiar smells and sounds brought tears to my eyes.

Boys and girls were exiting their own rooms. Some with injuries, some without. Some crying, some not. Titus was splattered with blood and was grinning like a Phobos station highRed on stim-sticks.

I remembered this place. This struggle. When I was so ignorant of betrayal. When I had no friends.

I fingered the golden ring now adorning my finger. A wolf headed ring signifying House Mars. It almost burned. Even if this was just an illusion, it felt real. If this was real, I was insane.

Had I dreamed the future?

No.

I'd not dreamed it.

I lived it.

I now had a chance to save friends I had failed in the past.


	2. Chapter 2

888

Darrow does it again

888

Chapter 2

888

I drifted down the cold stone hallway, naked, as if in a dream. As 'fellow' golds passed me, all I could do was think about how I had to do this all again.

All the deaths.

The betrayals.

We came to a room with a trough of running water. It ran red with blood as little gold savages washed away the blood. A neat row of gold and black fatigues lay in the far side of the room. I found the one labeled Darrow au Andromedus.

The reminder of my deceit. Andromedus was not my name. It was a reminder that I had to make another name for myself.

Reaper. It is who I really am.

Roque finds me, Breaking me from my thoughts. "If you are thrown into the deep and do not swim, you will drown, right?" He raised thin aristocratic eyebrows. "So keep swimming" The vision of the boy brings tears to my eyes. I remember his head rolling across the Morning Star's deck.

The memory of this conversation comes to mind. "You know what the monkey said to the fish?" I ask him.

He saw the tears in my eyes. He looked at me quizzically. "Let me set you on this branch or you are going to drown." I finished the analogy to his confusion.

He understood nothing of what I felt.

"Let me give you some facts brother man. The lower colors have their children by catalyst. Fast births, sometimes with only five months gestation. Other than the Obsidians,-" I interrupted .

"Only golds go through the natural culling of birth." He knew nothing of why I cried. For the future lost. For friends gone.

The familiar conversation continued. He poured his heart out to me about the 'fool' he had killed in the passing. "We should join the others." I say, standing.

In the dining hall, our names float above chairs in golden letters. I plopped down and begin to eat. Some students were grouped together, crying. Antonia glared at me for eating at a time like this. She leveled another look over at Sevro.

We shared a nod, Sevro and I. We alone feasted on the meals before us. I knew it would be awhile until I got another meal like this.

Sevro, was my dearest friend in the future.

My savior as I was his.

The next stage of the passing is tribal warfare. I had felt the heat of it previously and wanted to nip this in the bud. I needed to change the paradigm.

I felt a pat on the shoulder. "Oy brotherman." I heard the younger version of Cassius's voice. I thought you might have been all brain." I helped him straighten his dislocated fingers.

He begins to brag about his brother's prowess at cravat and inquire about who I 'slagged'. "A poor boy who I painlessly put to rest." Was my answer.

He looked at me strange.

You could forget that all golds are natural born geniuses. Any slip in my facade could lead to death. I must live under a facade once more. I am a gold now.

Cassius grows more and more nervous as he watches all the seats fill.

Fitchner sauntered in after the last student filed into the room and took a seat at the table. "We're wasting the best of us" Cassius whispered as his brother failed to show up. I felt my own guilt begin to creep back up my throat with my meal.

Fitchner leaned back in his chair and yawned. "Hello, you little shiteaters."

He scratched his groin with his razor's hilt. "You might have noticed that the Passage may as well be called the Culling."

I felt numb watching living through this moment again.

"And you may think it a waste of Golds, but you're an idiot if you think a hundred children make a dent in our numbers. There are one million golds on Mars. One hundred million in the solar system. Not all of them get to be peerless scarred, eh?

He began to cite the great culling culture in Earth history, the Spartans. And made the argument all golds make 'Keeping the Color strong'.

"Out of twelve hundred students, the top six hundred live and the bottom six hundred are dead. There is no waste in separating the good from the bad." He laughed a little and glanced around lazily at the students. "Other than Priam, A brilliant boy that. Fast, strong, ambitious. Everything a gold should be."

He looked around the room again. "But he was pampered. Someone, I won't say who, knocked him down and stomped on his neck until he died. Another one of you, I still won't say who, killed two Obsidians as they tried to abduct him in the night."

I glanced over at Sevro as I continued to eat. We were still the only ones eating. We shared another look.

I winked.

He scowled and turned away.

I came back to the end of Fitchner's speech as Titus spoke up.

"So what, the Institute is supposed to make us tough?"

No, you colossal oaf, its supposed to make you hard, cruel and wise. It is supposed to age you fifty years in ten months and show you what your ancestors did to give you this empire, may I continue?"

Fitchner popped a bubblegum bubble.

He explained the point of this to the traumatized gold 'children'. The potential sponsoring and jobs available to peerless scarred.

Then he explained Primus to the others.

Primus.

The boss.

King.

God.

What I had to become once more.

888

There are many people who lack a purpose. A goal. They lack direction.

I had direction.

Many of the gold children around me had a purpose and goals. They were ambitious enough to kill to be where they are. They had purpose to even be in the institute.

There was only one thing that separated me from them.

Conviction.

888


	3. Chapter 3

Another short update.

The .37 percent gravity is a cake walk. I jogged with the rest of the members of House Mars around the little section of territory around our fortress. This was familiar. I saw the hidden spot where the matches were hidden. The ability to make fire would be important in the future.

Fitchner blathered on about the valley we were in and the terrain around us. My mind was on other things. My eyes occasionally strayed to Titus. I couldn't help but glare at the back of his head. I couldn't reveal myself to him, nor did I want to kill a fellow lowRed.

I had to kill him.

He was a liability to me. A liability to Fitchner. A liability to the future. A future I could never see again. I had to kill him before he became a danger to us all. The lowColors must rise again. He was the single greatest threat to my mission.

I had to kill him soon.

Why was I here in the past. Who had sent me? I wanted to scream.

Titus glanced over his shoulder and caught sight of my glare. The unstable fuck grinned at me. He slowed his jog to so that I was arms reach from him.

"You got a problem with me Andromedus?" He showed a lot of teeth in his mad smile. I smelled his rank breath. He was looking forward to killing Golds. Looking forwards to killing me. I knew when someone wanted to kill me.

We would be here for ten months or when one tribe conquered the others. I don't think I could take ten months of Titus. "No." I ground out through gritted teeth.

I was never very good at hiding my emotions.

"You sure look like you do," He grinned ever wider. "Why don't we settle this now!" He called out loudly.

"We are in the same house you idiot." I replied. "We are supposed to fight the other houses."

"But you want to be Primus don't you." He asserted. "Thats why we have to fight"

Such a lack of logic was astounding.

For a Gold, I was large. Pushing 8 feet in height, I was thickly padded in muscle.

For a Gold, Titus was a giant. A little over 8 ft tall, he was near half again my weight in muscle.

Fitchner stayed silent and watched. It was not his place to interfere with tribal strife. Simply to observe and tell us the rules. I could see a medbot flying out of the trees and floating in the air above Fitchner's head.

They wanted us to fight. Were they insane?

There was a sonic boom as Proctor Mercury, Proctor Minerva, and Proctor Apollo made an appearance from Olympus to watch in person. "Get on with it then!" Fitchner called down as his hoverboots lifted him into the air to float alongside the three other proctors.

"How about a couple of razors for a proper duel then?" I called up, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

Two razors dropped to the ground. One at my feet. One at Titus's.

That... I did not expect.

I had changed the future too much already. There must be a lot of interest in me if they were this excited to see me fight.

Cassius, Roque, Lea, and the rest of House Mars was baking away from Titus and I in a circle.

"Cunts." I muttered. They were trying to kill me. Then I remembered I had killed two obsidians the night before... Were they just wanting to see anyone die?

I turned my attention to Titus, He still had a blood thirsty grin on his face.

I picked up the razor and changed the settings. It extended out into a curved blade as I pushed the button on the hilt. I looked back at Titus to see him rushing me, razor extended to skewer me. He did not intend to wait for a proper duel.

I dodged to the side and made a single swing as he passed by.

The top of his body, separated from the bottom with a wet splatter. His top half lay face down in the valley's grass. Blood flowed out of him like water from a busted canteen. Killing him was easier than killing a gray lurcher. I'd killed plenty of those.

A few of the students from house Mars gasped as the Proctors cheered.

"I'll be taking that back" Fitchner called from above me. The razor deactivated and jerked itself from my hand as a magnetic pull drew it from my hand into his own gloved one.

My mind was numb. I'd acted on instincts alone. I'd killed another Red. I'd eliminated a threat to the future in the only way I'd found that worked.

By killing it.

888

That night, we ate a deer that Fitchner had killed on the way back to Fortress Mars. Everyone was avoiding my gaze, except for the ever chatty Cassius. Even Antonia stayed oddly silent for once, around me.

"Jolly good show my good man."

Cassius slapped me on the back.

"I'm glad I could entertain." Sarcasm was quickly becoming the norm for me.

My temper was boiling, just under the surface. The battles I had fought. The friends I had lost. The enemies I had killed. All of it... All of my struggles. All my sacrifice. All of my friend's sacrifices.

My mouth tasted of ashes.

Cassius continued blathering. "I say, as Primus, I will make you my second man. Your skill with the razor is obviously superior."

I snorted into my goblet of water.

"No Cassius." I laughed a cold and bitter laugh. He was such an arrogant boy.

"I'm already Primus." No one argued.


End file.
